


Come On, It's the '90s!

by daughterofalderaan



Category: Holby City
Genre: F/F, Humor, I'm the Wolfe today hey hey hey
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-06
Updated: 2018-05-06
Packaged: 2019-05-03 01:13:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14557620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daughterofalderaan/pseuds/daughterofalderaan
Summary: Serena's surprised when she finds out what music Bernie's been listening to.





	Come On, It's the '90s!

**Author's Note:**

> Title's from that episode of 30 Rock where Carrie Fisher guest starred & her character thought she was living in...the '90s.

Bernie entered her kitchen, intending to grab something quick to eat before going out for a run. She was about to open the fridge door when she spotted a pair of wireless earbuds sitting on the counter.

“Must be Cam’s,” she thought. He’d stayed over for the night.

They had only texted each other after their semi-disastrous reunion on AAU; they hadn't seen each other in person since. He was drunk as a skunk when he called her up and said that they should spend time together—right then, at 9 PM on a Sunday. It definitely wasn't the ideal way she wanted to see her son again after the day of the accident, but she told him “Ok.” Seeing as Charlotte still refused to communicate with her through any medium, she’d take whatever she could get. 

They had decent conversation, despite the fact that he was highly intoxicated, and she was not. Except for when he teased her about a certain co-lead—damn his keen observational skills. He’d been on the mark when he initially pointed out the way she looked at Serena. Even if her knee-jerk reaction at the time was to tell him he was wrong, she now recognized all the feelings she’d been burying. 

She didn’t want to lie to Cameron, not after everything that had happened. But she and Serena were a nonentity. The fact that she let herself fancy someone who’d never like her back in that way? But there also did seem to be something else there between them, something a bit more than friendship? These weren’t things she wanted to discuss with her kid, so she tried to steer things away from that topic.

Cam left her place early in the morning; the only remnant of his stay was these earbuds. Bernie called him to let him know that he left them behind. 

He picked up, saying “Mum?”

“Yeah, hi, Cam, you left your headphones over at my flat.”

“Did I?! I couldn’t find them this morning—just assumed I’d dropped them in the cab last night or something.“

“Why don’t you use the kind that actually have wires coming out of them if these ones are so easy to lose?”

“My phone doesn’t have a headphone jack. It’s either use bluetooth or suffer without music.”

“Oh yes, go two seconds without and the world will implode,” she said sarcastically. “So, how do you want them back?” 

“Actually… I’ve already bought another pair.”

“How long ago could you have bought them?!”

“Just half an hour ago. But I paid in cash, and didn’t take a receipt—”

“Surely the cashier will remember you?"

“—And ripped open all the packaging. Mum, it’s alright. You can use the pair I left behind until I lose these new ones.”

“Hang on, why are you under the impression that you will lose them? You need to be more responsible with your things, Cam.”

He let out a sigh. “Fine. If a mastermind criminal targets me and thieves all of my belongings, then you can give me back the old EarPods.”

She shook her head at his cheek. “Well they're useless to me—I don’t really listen to anything on my phone.”

“How about this; I’ll send you a playlist. Keep you up-to-date with the greatest hits of this modern age.”

“I can’t guarantee I’ll enjoy this.” 

“I’ll text you with what app to download. You’ll fit in with the hip youths before you know it.”

“Somehow I doubt that.”

***************

Bernie didn’t normally listen to anything when going out for a run—well, at least on the music front. The perpetual sound of children screaming that came from the primary school’s playground? That wasn't exactly synonymous with silence.

Once she was outside, she paired up her phone with Cam’s earbuds and loaded up the playlist he’d sent. Her mistake was the fact that she didn't pre-screen the song list before listening. She pressed play, and headed off. All but five seconds later, she stopped dead in her tracks. She knew what song this was.

This was one of those songs that Charlotte would play over and over and over when she was a little girl. Even Cam, a child determined to cause as much mayhem as he could, would have a meltdown after Charlotte blasted the same track for the tenth time in a row. Bernie so missed the everyday moments like this where she could just exist on the same plane as her children—where her own daughter would even speak to her.

And so she kept the music playing, despite the fact that it sounded even worse in the 2010s than it did back in the ‘90s. She continued on her way, feet pounding on the pavement, until she found herself close to the town centre. Her mind was wandering far and wide, and she wasn’t being alert to her surroundings. Therefore she only had herself to blame when she went around a sharp bend and ran smack-dab into someone who was coming from the opposite direction.

“Oof,” she let out, as an extremely familiar voice let out a loud swear.

“Serena? I'm so sorry!”

“Oh, Bernie! Do watch where you’re going next time.”

“I know I know, I can't believe I did that. Gosh, fancy running into you, quite literally!”

“Seems we just can’t get rid of each other! I don’t even live ‘round here—I’m on the hunt for a very specific type of jam. We’ve just run out, and Jason won’t have any other brand.”

Serena went on about Jason’s breakfast preferences, but Bernie couldn’t hear her so well over the music. She reached into her pocket to click the volume down button on her phone. The problem was that the volume didn’t seem to be decreasing at all. Was the button broken? She held down the other button, to see if that had any effect. Her troubleshooting skills left much to be desired, because now it started blasting even louder, with no way to minimize the volume.

Bernie tried to quickly take them out of her ears without Serena noticing, but she definitely noticed. She halted her anecdote, and directed her attention towards the buds that were humming in Bernie’s hand.

“What are you listening to?” Serena asked. 

“Oh, uh, nothing,” Bernie stuttered out.

Serena raised a brow at Bernie’s shifty reply. “Well, then, have your hands been taking vocal lessons? I can hear singing coming from them.” Before Bernie could stop her, Serena had plucked an earpiece out of her hand and put it into her own ear. Serena’s eyes went wide, as she seemed to immediately recognize the song.

“God, haven’t heard this one in ages. This was Elinor’s favorite music group, at age five.” 

Bernie’s cheeks burned beet red.

She made an attempt at snatching back the earbud, but Serena was too quick, again. She caught Bernie’s wrist with one hand and covered her ear with the other. She crooned along for a line, surprisingly in tune. “Gonna show you howwww.”

Oh god, the woman could sing? On top of the endless list of her other talents? And then there she was, getting some ridiculous level of flustered, with her friend now thinking that she regularly listened to S Club 7.

Bernie started tapping furiously at her phone, trying to shut it all down, but she somehow instead accidentally turned off the bluetooth connection and fast forwarded to the next song. Why was technology like this? 

Her phone blasted out “Some people say I look like me Dad,” before she finally got the song to pause. Serena started laughing.

“Listen,” Bernie started. “This is all Cameron’s fault.”

“I’m not laughing at you! Ok, maybe a little. I was just surprised.” I’ll put on a bit of Spice Girls on occasion, you know—“ 

That’s when Serena’s phone started to ring. “It’s Jason,” Serena explained, putting the phone up to her ear. She listened for a moment, and mouthed “He’s talking about the jam.” 

Serena spoke to him for a minute and when she hung up said, “Sorry, Bernie, gotta get this jam and make it to the hospital.” She lifted her wrist for a second to check the time. “Decelerate when you're going around a bend next time,” she said, playfully. She gave a little wave and hurried off.

After Serena left, Bernie made her way back home. She didn’t listen to any more of the playlist; she merely texted Cam a “You’re grounded.” He replied with a winking emoji. 

***************

Bernie started work much later than Serena that day; their shifts only overlapped for 45 minutes. Bernie entered their office, said hi to Serena, and plopped down into her chair to quickly go through her emails. A few minutes later, Morven came in to get them to sign off on a large stack of forms.

While they were both scribbling their signatures in, Serena said with a deceivingly professional voice, “Oh, Ms. Wolfe. S Club 7 tickets are available online now for their reunion tour." Morven looked back and forth between them, confused. Bernie had to defend her honor.

"I don’t actually ever listen to that.”

"Mmm,” said Serena.

"I don't listen to much of anything."

"Whatever you say," said Serena, eyes dancing playfully. 

“S Club was all the rage when I was in primary school,” chimed in Morven.

“I swear! My son got it to play on my phone!”

Bernie didn’t get to explain herself further because Fletch ran in, asking for a consultant, stat. Typical AAU. Bernie bounced out of her seat, springing into action mode.

By the time she got back into the office, Serena was gone for the day. She prayed that everybody would forget about this day, and never again mention S Club 7.

**Author's Note:**

> 90s cheese makes for the BIGGEST BOPS, like, im the opposite of bernie here, i tell everyone that my favorite recording artist is Hannah Montana because IT IS
> 
> Also....I have literal no idea what I’m doing...This is the 1st time I’ve ever posted a fic or fiction of any kind, so I’m mcfreakin terrified, i’m gonna break out into hives. If you’re reading this it means I’ve thrown my laptop out the window and fled towards a life of seclusion in the desert!!!


End file.
